The chief of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) proposes a brief shutdown of mobile-banking services in Cox’s Bazar to curb drugs.
Speaking at the launching of an awareness campaign in Dhaka, Director General Benazir Ahmed claimed that the monthly transaction through mobile banking in the coastal districts stands over Tk 1 billion.
“Some 2.3 million people live in Cox’s Bazar and there’s no factory or industry, then how such an amount change hands. We suspect it to be drug money. Shut these services for at least two months and let us investigate,” he told the programme attended by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
Nearly 10,000 arrests have been made and narcotics worth Tk 1 billion have been seized in the 80 days, since May 3 when the crackdown on drug began upon the prime minister’s order, said the elite police unit’s chief.
“As many as 5,877 people have been tried in mobile courts while 2,959 have been prosecuted on narcotics charges. Besides, another 1,038 people have been fined,” said RAB Director General Benazir.